Q&A: New UC athletic director Whit Babcock

Oct. 24, 2011

With UC President Gregory WIlliams, left, Whit Babcock was introduced as the new athletic director at the University of Cincinnati during a press conference at the Varsity Village on the Clifton campus. / The Enquirer/Michael E. Keating

Question: How concerned are you about where UC will end up when the current round of conference realignment settles?

Answer: Am I concerned about it? Yes. I'm not panicked about it. I know that Cincinnati has a tremendous amount to offer. We're going to line up and compete and win in whatever conference we're in. There's a lot of things when you come in as an athletic director, but that one would certainly be at the top of the list . . . I think I can bring some perspective to it.

Q: Are you taking a personal risk coming to a school without knowing which league it will compete in?

A: It could be looked at that way, but I really feel like Cincinnati is building something special. And while I'd love to have Texas' $130 million budget, that's not going to happen here, maybe for quite a while. But I like taking what we have and beating schools like that, so I'm not afraid of the challenge.

Q: If somehow UC ended up in the Big 12, could it compete successfully given the lack of financial resources it has compared with most of the schools in that league?

A: Absolutely they could compete in that league. First off, the financial revenue sharing bump would probably equate to an extra $8 to $9 million dollars a year overnight. ... Is it easy to compete with a low budget? No. But I think Cincinnati could go toe to toe with the majority of the Big 12. I don't know too many people that can go toe to toe with Texas and Oklahoma all the time, but that league is more than Texas and Oklahoma.

Q: What does a good athletic director do?

A: If I have to break it down, the simplest leadership role of an athletic director boils down to character and competence. If I prove to have character in what I say and I shoot people straight and I'm the same publicly as I am privately, I believe that's absolutely key. At the same time, I've got to have competence. I've got to be able to have some victories under my belt and show people that I know what I'm talking about.

All of us in athletics, especially our coaches, need to be looked at as teachers first of our student-athletes and then we engage a community. I think we're a rallying point for the university, something to build around.

Q: When you talk about character, given all that's going on with conference realignment and the way athletics officials from different schools apparently lie to each other, how much character do these officials have?

A: You're right. It's easy to talk about character until you're in a tight spot. I don't know that they're lying to each other but that's certainly connecting the dots. That's a great question, well put, and I don't know I have an answer to it. I know the decisions on conference matters are being made at the level of the campus CEO.

Q: You've talked about the student-athlete experience and how much it meant to you as a baseball player at James Madison. Do you think student-athletes should be paid?

A: Maybe. But that one needs to be vetted a lot. Once you open the door on that, it creates a financial strain ... does it open the door for additional recruiting improper benefits, like if you come to my school, I'm going to give you X? I would be open to listening to it, but I would cast a very wary eye towards that. I just think it opens Pandora's box.

Q: With football driving conference alignment, what's happening to college athletics where one sport and television can dictate so much of an entire school's athletic mission? Does that disturb you at all?

A: Television money has changed everything. I don't know that I'm disturbed by it, it's just the culture that we have now and it really all stems from television money, which everyone is taking and quite frankly we need at UC too.

Q: If you're Mick Cronin, coaching at a school where basketball has always had a great tradition, how would you feel seeing that the whole future of your program is in jeopardy?

A: If I'm Mick and those guys, it bothers me. The fate of their jobs and their conference is not in their hands. I feel for Mick Cronin and for our Olympic sports coaches that their recruiting bases may be changed and their traditional rivalries may be changed. It needs to get over with as quickly as possible.

Q: Coming from the Big 12, maybe you can answer this question. Why do we hear West Virginia and Louisville as logical replacements if Missouri leaves and not Cincinnati?

A: I don't think those comments are coming from the Big 12 Conference. I would argue all day long why Cincinnati shouldn't take a back seat to anybody. On the surface looking at it, Louisville is there on the geographic footprint, but so is Cincinnati. Louisville's budget is pretty large and comparable there with the Big 12 and now that football is a little bit down at Louisville, that's where basketball would be brought up there.

West Virginia, you can look at it a couple of ways. Most of the schools in the Big 12 are flagship universities of the state. You've seen people move away from just the broad statement that their TV market is this big. It certainly helps, but it's also gone to the television partners and they say, how attractive are they for people to watch them on TV because you can watch TV nationwide?

Q: What would you do to increase men's basketball attendance?

A: It's something we need to evaluate from a master facilities standpoint, but the other part I'd like to evaluate is are we making it hard for fans to come to games? Are we creating memorable experiences for people to come to the games? That's a little easier to work and address than building a new arena or renovating it.

Q: What is UC's greatest strength?

A: Vision. In the president's strategic plan, I love that he comes out with measurable objectives. He says we're going to raise the tide across the board.

Q: What is its biggest weakness?

A: Separating out our market niche in a pro sports town. To me, marketing is telling people who we are and what we have to offer. In this town, there a lot of people with bigger marketing budgets and it's a one-way conversation. How do we differentiate ourselves for the competition for the entertainment dollar? Is it price, is it pageantry and tradition? Is it how they're treated? I want to move from marketing and branding. What is the brand of UC athletics? We're going to lock in on something consistent.

Q: How much did president Williams stress the importance of raising more revenue?

A: It was up there (as a top priority). Fundraising is important, something that I'm comfortable with. We need to show people a vision and a need and how their gift can help and then people need to believe in the direction that we're going to use it and then we need to spend it wisely. We've got to turn over every stone, whether it's our concession contract, our apparel contract, our licensing ... I'm not going to go out and break contracts, but there are a lot of different touch points that we can look at from a revenue generation standpoint.